Marines at Belleau Wood

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I have seen the few seconds of film I am about to refer to, the original is in the posession of the National Archives and Graves Erskin even references being filmed in his oral history. I and Mike Miller of the Grays Research center in Quantico is of the opinion that this is the film he refers to as he was not present when the 79th Co. moved to the front he was at Gandrecourt attending the officers infantry course (he arrived later when the 79th attacked Bouresches). Watch the film below and pause it promptly at 1:34 and take a look at the man in the middle of the screen, you might notice something of interest. This particular film is, if I can recall correctly dated July 1918.

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It would be great if they could re-digitize the original film: it was done at the old VHS resolution, which is a much lower resolution than the original film (which is probably 16mm). If they could do it as HD video it might be possible to see a few more details.

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Kevin: Teufelhund raises an interesting point....I agree it is a collage of footage, the question comes down to when was that small clip taken and where....Is there enough clues to ID the location of that scene....If anyone can, I have no doubt you would be able to figure it out in time......have you been able to ID any of the men in the frame by name? I am starting to find luck in my area of research by ID faces to determine year taken, company etc......granted my numbers are far smaller then what you have to work with. Regardless, a great clip...thanks for sharing it.

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When I first saw this it was at the NMMC during the seminar I spoke at with Mike Miller and he showed this footage and discussed with me how he found Graves Erskine referencing being filmed. When I saw the catalogue listing of this film via the NARA database I want to say July 1918 was the date but given that I examined over 1800 individual documents between RG 127 and the Divisional files I cannot provide you solid proof positive evidence that my recollection is correct. Also I know that the film available and that I attached depicts multiple units at various times. Granted the moment I am referring to is simply the split second blurb of film whether or not that is July or November 1918 or even January 1919 I have no idea. The rest of if is of course a collage of other footage put together by someone for the Youtube video and I never intended to infer that they were all Marines, but I don't see how you can argue that the men seen at 1:34 are not Marines. I did recognize the footage from Cantigny from the Signal Corps footage I have seen elsewhere. I can't definatively say this means Marines wore EGAs at Belleau Wood I don't think anything will surface that definatively settles the argument that it was or was not widely done but it's interesting to see images of it nonetheless movie footage of it.

I know this is redundant from a previous post but here is some further interesting info. The Marine in the last blurb of this I believe is BGen. Doyen who was sent home ill in early 1918.

Also found this very interesting footage of Private James L. Clark receiving the DSC. Clark is the Marine on the right. Clark passed away in 1999 at the age of 100. See the attached still photo of Clark after receiving the DSC.